BANGOR — The championship that was in hand was suddenly in doubt, but Foxcroft Academy football coach Danny White stayed cooler than the mid-November air at Bangor’s Cameron Stadium.
“Another one,” he recalled telling his defense. “We were getting the stops. So it was just get one more.”
As it has all season, White’s team answered the call. Foxcroft denied a late Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale rally, clinching a 19-16 victory and the Class D state championship, the Ponies’ first state title since a Class C championship in 2012.
Foxcroft finished the season 11-0, with two of those wins coming against the Ramblers.
“It’s so surreal. This is something that we’ve been working on for a while,” said Foxcroft quarterback Austin Seavey, who led an offense that also got nine carries for 119 yards and a touchdown from Jesse Drury. “We’re a football town, we’ve (won) a lot of Gold Balls and I’m so happy to get this one.”
The Ramblers, in their first state final since 2008, finished 7-2, unable to get the pass or run they needed to write a different ending.
“Credit to them, to have some stops when they needed it,” said Winthrop coach Dave St. Hilaire, whose team got 119 yards on 20 carries from Logan Baird and 73 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries from Dom Trott. “We needed a big play here or there, and we didn’t get it.”
The Ramblers struggled all day with Seavey, as the star senior ran 10 times for 57 yards and a touchdown and also completed 11 of 18 passes for 86 yards and two scores. But they got a break when Seavey, on fourth-and-1 from the Ramblers 29-yard line, gained 4 yards but fumbled the ball, with Gavin Willet recovering with 3:22 to play.
Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale’s Robby Feeney (36) loses his helmet as he’s tackled by a group of Foxcroft Academy players during the Class D state championship football game Friday at Cameron Stadium in Bangor. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
On the Ramblers sideline, St. Hilaire thought things were lining up for a state final stunner.
“I thought we had the game. It’s like, ‘We’re going to go. We’re going,'” he said. “We had some momentum, we’ve got plenty of time, we don’t need to get out of our offense.”
It looked even better when Andrew Foster scrambled for 14 yards to the Ramblers 41, and then when he ran for 7 yards on second-and-5 to the Foxcroft 47, but the Ponies held firm. A run for no gain and two incomplete passes followed, and Foster was sacked while rolling toward the sideline to end the Ramblers’ hopes.
“(The defense) made a play when it didn’t look good, it looked bleak, to come back and win,” St. Hilaire said. “That’s all we ask. Let’s get to the fourth quarter, let’s get down late and have a chance to win this game. It just didn’t work out for us.”
Meanwhile, no one felt happier than Seavey.
“We stepped up in a big way,” he said. “I’m just so proud of those guys, being able to pick me up like that.”
A fumble on the opening drive helped the Ramblers get momentum early. Foxcroft moved the ball into W/M/HD territory, but the Ramblers gained possession and marched 79 yards in eight plays, with Trott surging in from 3 yards out to make it 8-0 Ramblers.
Winthrop/Monmouth/Hall-Dale’s Ethan Neal (7) celebrates a tackle, with teammates Gavin Willet (12) and Kolby Reynolds (87), against Foxcroft Academy In the Class D state championship football game Friday at Cameron Stadium in Bangor. Michael G. Seamans/Morning Sentinel
Foxcroft answered on the next series, with Seavey hitting Caden Crocker (five catches, 66 yards) on a 13-yard post pass. The Ramblers appeared to hold on the next Foxcroft drive, but a dropped snap on a punt turned into a 17-yard run for Kemsley Marsters to the W/M/HD 47, and after a false start Drury broke free for 52 yards and a 12-8 Foxcroft lead with 4:17 left in the half.
The Ramblers went back in front 16-12 on their second possession of the second half on Trott’s second touchdown from 2 yards out. The momentum lasted three plays, as the Ponies answered with a 33-yard run by Drury, a pretty over-the-shoulder catch by Crocker for 30 yards, and a 3-yard run by Seavey for a 19-16 lead with 11:33 to play.
“We’ve been built on big plays all year,” Seavey said. “We’ve been able to score really quickly in a lot of games.”
Galvanized, the Ponies defense made a big stop on fourth-and-6 from the Foxcroft 47 on the Ramblers’ next drive. And when the game’s twists and turns resulted in the defense being called again, it was ready once more.
“When you’re playing for a Gold Ball, you’ve got to play to the last snap,” White said. “It could be ugly at times, it could be uncomfortable at times. You just hope and pray that the position you put your kids in and the conditioning you’ve run them through, that they’re prepared for a moment where things aren’t going well.”
The emotions were different on the other sideline.
“It’s going to hurt today, it’s going to hurt tonight, it’s going to hurt next week. It’s probably going to hurt forever,” St. Hilaire said. “But the memories, you’ve got to cherish those forever, to get this far. The guys love each other. You don’t see this in a lot of programs, but the Hall-Dale, Winthrop and Monmouth kids, it’s all one team.”
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